Sheila Hancock talks about her love for the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne
'I find the work of the Brontë
sisters shocking, erotic, profoundly moving and quite wonderful,' says Sheila
Hancock Photo: Martin
Pope
Sheila Hancock’s famous turquoise eyes widen with emotion. She is in full
flow on the subjects of enduring love, sex, passion, addiction and the extremes
of human obsession. It’s a pretty arresting sight.
At 80 years old, she might be talking about aspects of her own tempestuous
life, which, she says has been lived unfettered by emotional caution. For now,
the talk is of literature, specifically the genius of the three Brontë sisters
and their larger-than-life creations, most notably Heathcliff and Mr Rochester.
“I find the work of the Brontë sisters shocking, erotic, profoundly moving
and quite wonderful,” she says. “In fact, I rate each of them among the greatest
novelists I have ever read.”
Waterstones, then, should stock up on copies of Wuthering Heights,
Jane Eyre and the lesser-known Tenant of Wildfell Hall – written
respectively by Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Hancock, after all, is about to
present a documentary about the three of them called, compellingly, The
Brilliant Brontë Sisters.
Forming part of ITV’s Perspectives series – in which various public
figures explain their passion for an aspect of the arts (Michael Portillo on
Picasso, Jonathan Ross on Hitchcock, for example), Hancock argues her case so
persuasively that nearly two centuries after the Brontë’s penned their
masterpieces, they might well top today’s bestseller lists.
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